Bridget Smart
Understanding How Influence Affects Information Flow in Online Social Networks
Social media is an increasingly powerful source of influence, and recent global and political events have raised concerns about the quality of information available as many people move online to connect and learn. Quantifying and modelling influence in social media provides an opportunity to understand and propose solutions to phenomenon such as echo chambers, fake news and disinformation campaigns. The aim is to examine and quantify types of influence which a user can have online, using data about how these users engage on Twitter, and then to generate a deep learning model capable of capturing and modelling the effects of this influence. The research will extend existing work, with the main contribution being to define types of influence, building on existing work which uses engagement metrics as an indicator of influence.
Bridget Smart
The University of Adelaide
Bridget Smart is a balanced, self-motivated student, having just completed her third year of study of the Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences (Advanced) at the University of Adelaide. With majors in Statistics and Applied Mathematics, her focus is to apply her technical background to develop innovative, pragmatic solutions to complex, global issues.
